For those who have not seen "The Last Man on Earth," it stars
Will Forte (who is also the show's creator) as Phil Miller (a
portmanteau of the show's producers Phil Lord and Christopher
Miller), who seems to be the last person alive after a deadly
virus sweeps the planet. Phil travels around the country, steals
priceless items from the White House, and then settles in a
Tucson, Arizona mansion to live out the rest of his days.

If you missed out on watching the first season, here's why you
should catch up.

The show is backed by a creative force

The comedy power trio of
Phil Lord, Will Forte, and Christopher Miller.Getty Images

Phil Lord and Christopher
Miller are the miracle workers who turned "21 Jump Street," "22
Jump Street," and "The Lego Movie" into instant classics. Once
again, they took an idea that could have been one dimensional (a
man surviving the apocalypse) and gave it heart and a sense of
purpose.

It's great to see Forte's odd and surreal sense of humor finally
be rewarded. If you have ever watched any of his
"SNL" sketches (which were typically
too strange to air in the first half of the show), or 2010's
underrated "MacGruber" (which has amassed a cult following), then
you will know exactly what you're getting yourself into.

It doesn't look like a typical network sitcom

Will Forte won't compare
"Last Man on Earth" to "Breaking Bad," but he does cite it as an
influence.AMC via
Netflix

Traditional sitcoms are
typically limited to a few spaces. It could be somebody'sliving
room,a bar, or acoffee
shop, but they typically
don't go too far beyond that.

"Last Man" uses the expansive
southwestern desert as its playground. It will remind you more of
"Breaking Bad" than "The Mindy Project" or "Brooklyn
Nine-Nine." After all, both shows open with men with questionable
morals driving a giant vehicle through the desert.
According to Grantland, Forte even cited the late AMC drama
as a major inspiration.

The show is really good at keeping big plot points
secret

In a world where spoilers are
almost impossible to avoid, "Last Man" does an impressive job at
holding in its biggest surprises.

If you watch the show on cable, you may notice that the
description for many episodes simply read as some variation of
"Phil Miller continues to live in Tucson." (IMDB offers much more
detailed breakdowns).

Here are the episode
descriptions for four back-to-back episodes of "Last Man on
Earth" from Xfinity. Some of the other episode descriptions were
more informative.Xfinity

The only other show on TV right now that is this good at
withholding information is "Mad
Men."

It leaves a lot to the imagination

Fox

Stories set in the future
typically involve a lot of world-building. Yet, Lord, Miller, and
Forte want us to know as little as possible. What caused the
virus that ended the world? What was going on in that one
flashback of Phil that we saw? Why does a cow show up out of the
blue when it seems like even cockroaches haven't survived this
apocalypse?

That doesn't matter. This is not a show about how the world will
end, but rather how somebody might behave if the apocalypse
occurred.

The protagonist is a terrible person — and that makes him
compelling to watch

Phil Miller is a selfish person
who sometimes borders on being a flat-out sociopath, and, yet, he
is the one that we are supposed to root for while
watching.

That's what makes him so interesting. Phil will go to such
extreme lengths to get what he wants without caring who he is
hurting around him. In fact, his intention is usually to hurt
others. It wasn't until
recently that he finally gained some self-awareness and realized
he's sort of a monster.

In the "Seinfeld" tradition, Phil is hard to root for. But unlike
a lot of traditional sitcom characters, Phil also seems capable
of change (emphasis on the word "seems"). Yet, every time a new
person gets added to Phil's world, the more selfish and awful he
is willing to be in order to get what he wants.

Every episode is a pleasant, unexpected
surprise

Melissa (January Jones) found Phil and Carol in Tucson
at the end of episode three.Fox YouTube
Channel

The ensemble started with just
one character (Forte) and since the pilot, it has expanded to
several more.

Sure, I could have watched an
entire show of Will Forte talking to a balloon with a face drawn
on it. However, the new characters bring new
relationships, dynamics, and power struggles. It is much more
willing than most network sitcoms to throw its characters into
unfamiliar, uncomfortable situations. This unpredictability makes
it all the more fun to watch, and your best bet is to start from
the beginning.

Until more people show up,
these are Phil Miller's best friends in
Tucson.Fox via
YouTube

"The Last Man on Earth" will be
back for season two sometime in the near future, hopefully before
the apocalypse.